Explanation: These
two galaxies are
interacting in a surprising way,
connected by a "pipeline"
of obscuring material that runs between them over 20,000 light-years
of intergalactic space.
Silhouetted by starlight,
the dark, dusty ribbon appears
to stretch from NGC 1410 (the galaxy at the left)
and wrap itself around NGC 1409 (at right).
A mere 300 million light-years distant in the constellation
of Taurus, the pair's
recent collision has likely drawn out this relatively
thin lane of material which is only about 500 light-years wide.
Though the Hubble Space Telescope image
dramatically
illustrates
how galaxies
exchange matter when they collide, it also presents challenges
to current pictures of
galaxy evolution.
The titanic
collision has triggered
star formation in NGC 1410 as
evidenced by its blue star forming regions, yet NGC 1409
remains devoid of hot,
young blue
stars even though observations indicate
that material is flowing into it.
Bound by gravity, these
two
galaxies are doomed to future collisions,
merging over time into one.